Giordano Biondani Photography

Fall colors in North Carolina

2007-10-30T17:47:00.000-05:00

North Carolina is not as famous as New England for foll foliage colors, but it's not too bad either. I took these pictures last Sunday along the Blue Ridge Parkway, which follows the top of the Appalachians between North Carolina and Virginia.

Unfortunately the extreme drought that hit the area in the last few months has caused the colors of many trees to be a lot less nice than they should be (see the yellows here on the right), so I will have to cheat and post some pictures that I took in the same place last year and that for some reason I must have forgotten to post before.

As you can see, I was not the only one taking pictures...

...and this is what everybody was taking pictures of: trees...

...a patch of pumpkins (just in time for Halloween), and more trees.

Fall colors in Maine

2007-10-27T12:51:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago I was again in Maine, and it was pretty much peak time for the famous New England foliage colors. I was working, so there was very precious little time to take pictures, only in the morning and at dusk, but those are usually the best times anyway.

A friend was nice enough to take me on a long and strenuous hike up Borestone Mountain at about 6 am in below-freezing temperature and strong winds. I somehow managed to get on top, and the view was well worth the excruciating expedition:

The view from the top was fantastic, but also on the way up and down there were a few nice scenes, like this boat on one of the ponds along the trail, and, of course, lots of colorful trees...

I took the remaining pictures (the one on top and the one here on the left) when the sun was already very low and the air hazy, so it was hard to strike a balance between the darkening trees and the sky still bright with diffused light. The first picture required some work in Lightroom (some fill light, exposure and contrast adjustment, and negative vignetting correction) but I believe that the result is quite nice.

The last picture is the first I took; nothing special, I just stopped the car on the side of the road on my way up to the central part of the state, but it shows the nice scenary that you can find pretty much anywhere in Maine, especially in the fall.

Glacier National Park (Montana)

2007-10-27T10:31:00.000-05:00

It's time to catch up with the posts here.

Back in July we went to Glacier National Park, in Montana. The weather was very good, clear , hot and hazy - this is not a good combination for photography. Unfortunately even at sunrise and sunset the light was very bland and meaningless.

Anyway, first things first: the mandatory picture of the island on St. Mary's lake. This is the best known view in the park and everybody takes a picture of it, so here we go:

The park covers a vast mountaneous range that was shaped in valleys and lakes by glaciers; many of these glaciers are still there today, even though they are dwindling in number and size very quickly. They estimate that within 30 years there will be no more glaciers left, but they assure us that the park will not change its name.

The mountains are not as impressive as I had anticipated, but the lakes are all very nice.

The first here on the left is Hidden Lake; it can be reached with a fairly long hike from Logan Pass, the highest point of the Going To The Sun Road. On the way, even in the summer, you will find a lot of snow and some mountain goats enjoying the cooler breeze in the altitude.

The Going To The Sun Road crosses the park in the east-west direction and gives you access to St. Mary's Lake and Lake McDonald (both here on the right). The road has a lot of traffic in the summer, but if you take the time to do some hiking you will find a lot of very nice, quiet and secluded places to explore.

I took the same picture of Lake McDonald with my large format camera, but the result was sort of disappointing. The light was just not right.

Less disappointing was the wildlife: besides the mountain goats, we also had a chilling encounter with a very aggressive, large and dangerous snake (I wasn't able to take a picture of it because I was busy running for my life, but I assure you that it was a very dangerous species).

Outside the park, in a wilderness preservation area south of Flathead Lake, we also found several bisons, a very aggressive, large and dangerous greezly bear (hmm... maybe not) feasting on top of a tree, and an antilope that didn't have any intention of letting us continue on our way.

Seattle, WA, northern Idaho and Western MT

2007-07-21T00:23:00.001-05:00

Last week we went for a few days to Glacier National Park; I'll post some pictures about it in the next few days, but for now I'll stick to the first part of our trip: Seattle, Washington state, northern Idaho and western Montana. Seattle is pretty far from Glacier NP, but direct flights into Montana on short notice are extremely expensive, so we had to do it this way.

It turned out to be a very good idea, because the city is very interesting, and so is the drive through Washington state, Idaho and the mountains of western Montana.

I took the first picture (below) by the ocean (actually Puget Sound) in Seattle; I didn't do any post-processing: the sky is as it was, and the street lamps are green because of the way the camera sees (I think) hot mercury vapors. Overall the effect is rather interesting.

The second picture is a lucky shot of some wild horses happily running on the crest of a hill near the Columbia river in Washington state. I just accentuated a bit the contrast of the thunderstorm clouds.

The third picture is an abandoned barn in Montana, along route 28, near the aptly named "Rattlesnake Gulch Road". I didn't see any rattlesnakes, but I bet there are many. This really is cowboy country!

Well, since you read this far, I'll let you in on a secret: the "wild horses" are not a lucky shot: they are steel sculptures that have been placed on top of the hill as a "Wild Horse Monument". They can be seen from a rest area just off I-90.

How to categorize photographs

2007-06-12T19:29:00.001-05:00

I've been wondering for a long time how to categorize and organize my pictures online and I was never very satisfied.
Last week I think I finally got it.
First of all, I thought about what are the elements that make a good photograph; I think they are the following:

The light
The colors
The mood
The subject

I then went through all of my pictures (about 11,000) trying to decide which element was most prominent in each photograph. Obviously some pictures excel in more than one aspect, and the best pictures you hope to take would excel in all of them, but it's fairly easy to look at any given picture and see which element is more prominent.

After that I tried to describe more in detail the quality of the element in each picture; this is what I came up with:

Light:

Color:

Mood:

Cold
I should find a lot more, but this is much more subjective and more difficult to recognize; it will take me more time

Subject:

This is it, and this is how I finally categorized my new galleries.

I'm pretty happy with the way it worked out and I think this will help me focus my photographic efforts in the future, because I think it will make it easier to understand ahead of time which photographic opportunities can turn out well. So far it was always a hit or miss.

PS: In case you are interested, I made the navigation pages in Adobe Photoshop and converted them in html using the Photoshop add-on ImageReady.
I made the galleries with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom: it's a great tool for organizing pictures, doing quick edits and corrections, and to create slideshows and web galleries. You should check it out. If you prefer free software, Google's Picasa is also a good bet.

New Gallery

2007-06-11T22:24:00.000-05:00

I'm back after a pretty long pause.

In the meanwhile I have taken a few new pictures and updated my galleries:

In the next few days I'll post some new pictures and explain how I decided to organize my galleries.

Troop Greeters

2007-01-21T19:54:00.000-05:00

I was at the airport in Bangor, ME last Friday.
I often see military flights arriving there, bringing home American soldiers from all over the world. There is a group of veterans and civilians - the Maine Troop Greeters - who gather at the airport every time a military flight arrives, night and day, to greet the soldiers. They applaud them as they deboard the plane and stand in line to shacke their hands and give a word of thanks.
It's usually a pretty touching scene. On Friday it was even more so, when this little girl took a place in line and started to shake the hands of the arriving soldiers. I think they could have hardly gotten a better welcome, and they seemed genuinely happy of it.

Tuscany, part 4: The Day-to-day Life

2007-01-01T21:44:00.001-05:00

For the last part of this series on Tuscany, I wanted to show some nice (I think) pictures that show a little of how the people who are there every day live.

A pub in the main square of Lucca.

A bicycle parked outside a house in the center of Lucca.

A grocery store window in Lucca, displaying bread, focaccia, olives, salami, lard, prosciutto, and more.

A busy street in Florence, behind the majestic dome of the cathedral.

An unmarked police car in Florence (I know it's just a picture of a car, but I love that car! It's an Alfa Romeo 159, for those of you who may care).

A bus stop in Florence.

Clothes hung to dry in Siena.

Tuscany, part 3: The Art (Random Moments)

2007-01-01T21:13:00.000-05:00

In Tuscany you can find enough Renaissance art to last you for a lifetime, in every town, at every streetcorner, and for a lot of it you can find plenty of information on the net. So even though I did take pictures of all the "mandatory" (really famous) stuff, I'll post only some random details that I shot here and there, in no particular order. Some of these, you may have never seen before.

Tuscany, part 2: The Chianti Valley

2007-01-01T19:17:00.000-05:00

The Chianti Valley extends between Florence and Siena. It is the home of the famous Chianti vineyards; here is one of them:

You can drive from Florence to Siena in a couple of hours; the scenery is fantastic, and you can stop in any of the few small towns on the way for a think and juicy Fiorentina steak in one of the local trattorias. Here are a house in a typical small town, and an abandoned farmhouse (I don't think it will stay abandoned for long though - it looks like it could become a very nice B&B, or agriturismo).

Tuscany, part 1: Etruscan Tombs

2007-01-01T15:52:00.000-05:00

Last summer we went to Italy for a few weeks. I finally have some time to post about that trip, but there is a lot to tell, so I'll do it in installments. Here is the first one.

Everybody knows about Tuscany: the rolling hills, the wine, the food, and so on. One of the less known things is that the region was home to the Etruscans, a mysterious people that thrived before the birth of Rome and that the Romans "absorbed" early on in their expansion, leaving little trace of their civilization. What is left are mostly underground tombs, scattered around the countryside.

You may be driving on a narrow winding road, when you may see a small sign directing you to a tomb in the middle of the woods, in a field, or in an olive orchard. Usually there is just a sign explaining when and how it was found, how old it is, and the little that is known about it. No tour guides on site, no admission ticket and no gift shop.

This is where we were walking to reach a tomb dating back from around the 3rd century before Christ.

Obviously the artifacts have long been removed and placed in museums or sold on the black art market, but the tombs themselves are fascinating, especially when you stop and realize that they are well over 2,000 years old.

These are the steps that lead down to one of the tombs.

Most of these tombs were built several feet underground, and you can access them only through these very steep and narrow stairs. It's kind of scary going down, because your eyes haven't adjusted from the bright summer day outside to the damp and mysterious darkness inside, and you don't quite know what to expect...

Here you can see the ledge where the dead were placed. The tomb is round, with a low vaulted ceiling and a pillar in the middle. The ledge runs around the perimeter of the tomb like a bench.

For more information about the Etruscans, refer to this very informative website: The Misterious Etruscans.

How to build your own HTPC

2006-12-31T00:26:00.000-05:00

I haven't been able to post in a long while, because I have been busy with a lot of other things, including taking pictures. I should be able to post some of my new pictures in the next few days.

Another one of the things that have kept me busy was building my own Home Theatre PC. This has some relevance to the Photoblog because a HTPC with a big wide screen TV is a great way to see your pictures, in fact I think it's probably the best way to do it. Organize your pictures in collections, select the appropriate soundtrack, and start the slideshow!

If you are interested, read on.

Reflection

2006-09-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

This is a picture I took in New York City; it's the reflection of a skyscraper, clouds, and the sky on another skyscraper. I took a close-up shot, avoiding the outline of the skyscrapers, to give it an abstract feel.

I especially like the color of the cloud reflection: it has a pastel look, and the window edges look like stitches on a quilt. An interesting effect considering the artificial and high-tech quality of the sibject matter.

Lighthouse

2006-09-25T21:58:00.000-05:00

I took this picture during a very cold night in December of 2001, in Michigan. I think I've never been so cold in my life (you can see how the water sprayed by the waves on the handrail has frozen - more noriceable in the second picture - almost unbelievable...).

I was able to get out of the car to take pictures for just few minutes at a time, when I saw the house beyond the rocks. The warm light inside contrasts nicely with the cold dim light outside, where even the bright lamppost feels cold. I call this picture "Lighthouse III"; even though the house is not a lighthouse, it felt like one.

Windows

2006-09-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

I took this picture a few years ago in Pavia, Italy.

These windows are on the building opposite the Certosa; in one of them you can see the reflection of the windows of the Ducal Palace.
It's interesting to see the traces of the long history of the building (probably built around the 15th century - I'm not sure because it's not one of the buildings of the Certosa that guidebooks mention), how the new windows have "grown" close to the old ones, like young trees growing next to an old stump.

Nürnberg

2006-09-21T19:29:00.000-05:00

I'm going to start posting some of my older pictures, without the usual long descriptions, so that I can update the blog a little more often and keep things interesting.

I took this picture I believe in 1999 in Nürnberg, Germany. I used a very bad digital camera (by today's standards) but it's one of my favorite pictures: I think it conveys well the mood of those dark, cold, wet German winter nights.

Death Valley National Park

2006-09-17T20:23:00.000-05:00

We went to Death Valley National Park last May. It's a good trip to make if you are in Las Vegas and you are tired of the casinos, the crowds and the losses... We took two days for this trip. Even though you can stay much longer and not run out of things to see, 2/3 days are the ideal time, I think. It is definitely worth spending at least one night out.
Death Valley is about 3 hours from Las Vegas, north on route 95, then south on 373 and west on 190.
The first point of interest after entering the park is Dante's View, which offers a beautiful panoramic view over the southern part of the valley and the salt lake.
Further along is Zabriskie Point, home to very interesting rock formation - actually, the whole valley is home to very interesting rock formations: besides the rock formations, the sand and the salt there is very little. Each corner of the valley is different though, I would never have thought that "rock formations" could be so very different before I went to the Southwest.
Shortly after Zabriskie Point you'll reach route 178; turn left and follow the road until Badwater; this is one of the spots from which you can access the salt lake without too much effort. Especially in the spring and summer months, Death Valley is extremely hot, and even short hikes can be dangerous, so don't underestimate even the shortest walk. People actually die in Death Valley fairly often.It's easy to underestimate the heat after you've been driving around for hours in a comfortably air-conditioned vehicle.
Walking on the salt lake is like walking on April snow: the color and texture of the salt feel like snow, and in certain places your foot may break the surface and sink in a puddle of water. The water is coming from an underground system that, amazingly, even after thousands of years of desertification of the area, is still providing water. The salt lake is the lowest point in the continental US, if I recall correctly, some 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level. A sign halfway up the mountain marks sea level. Very impressive. It makes you want to imagine what it would look like here if there was water up to that level.

Back north on 178, there are at least 3 turnoffs worth mentioning.

The first is the Devil's Golf Course. It has been thus named because, if it were a golf course, it would be the most difficult one in the world. I don't doubt that, but it also would be the most difficult basketball court, or baseball field, or soccer field... I don't know why they went for the golf course. Anyway, it's an apparently interminable field of dirt and salt lumps. Very strange. In retrospect, I think it would be a good subject for a view camera, with the front tilted down and the back tilted backwards, to increase the proportions of the lumps. Unfortunately I didn't have my view camera yet. Maybe next time - the place is certainly worth a second visit.
The next turnoff is Artist's Drive; it is so named because of the pictoresque colors of the rocks and mountains; the highlight of the drive is the Painter's Palette, a group of orange, red, green, blue and white rocks. However, even more than the colored rocks, I found interesting the small colorful flowers and bushes that somehow manage to grow in this inhospitable environment. Purple, green, yellow, white, they are a sight in themselves.
The third turnoff is salt creek; how much of the creek you'll be able to see depends on the time of year, but it's a very amazing view: in the middle of the desert, rocks, sand and salt, there is a small creek surrounded by lush (relatively speaking) vegetation. Many millenia ago, the creek used to be full of fresh water; now the water is salty, and one species of fresh water fish, having little choice, adapted to the salt in the water. This species (Cyprinodon Salinus, or pupfish) exists only in this creek. You should be able to see quite a few of the little fishes. The Park has built a wooden boardwalk along the creek, so that the delicate environment is not spoiled by the tourists.
Back on route 190 in direction west, just before Stovepipe Wells, you'll see on the right the famous Death Valley dunes. You can park the car on the side of the road and walk to the dunes. The best time to do this is just before sundown: the heat is not as bad and the light is fantastic on the dunes. It took me about 2 hours to get to the tallest dune, walk around taking pictures, and come back to the road. If you attempt the hike, don't forget to bring lots of water: I brought about a gallon, drank all of it, and at the end I was dangerously close to dehydration. At dinner I drank a glass of water after the other, but I think the pictures were worth it.
We stayed at a motel in Stovepipe Wells; very nice place, with a view over the desert (see picture on the left), a cool saloon where you can enjoy a cold beer, and even a small swimming pool. At night I played with some long-exposure pictures. As you can see from the star trails, the exposure was a couple of minutes long.
At the north end of the valley the main points of interest are Scotty's Castle and the Racetrack. The latter is well worth a photographic visit, but unfortunately our SUV had defective shocks and we weren't able to make it all the way to the end of the 30 mile long dirt road. If you attempt to get there, make sure that you have a good 4WD vehicle and plenty of time - the going is very slow.
We didn't find Scotty's Castle particularly interesting, so we didn't take the guided tour, and instead headed back towards Beatty; we wanted to see the ghost town Rhyolite; it used to be a prosperous mining town at the turn of the last century, with even its own casino, but now it's just an agglomerate of empty shells of buildings.
From Beatty it's about another 2 hours to get back to Las Vegas.
The park is actually rather large; we didn't make it to the western part, and we skipped all of the canyon hikes. These may be more interesting than the things I wrote about, so make sure to find out about the other points of interest before you go.

Resolution comparison: 4x5 view camera vs. 5MP dSLR

2006-09-14T22:20:00.000-05:00

After I built and used for the first time my Bender camera, I scanned one of the negatives (with an output of about 105MP) and compared the result with a similar picture taken with my Olympus E-1.
I feel kind of bad because I like my E-1 a lot, and obviously it's not fair to compare a 5MP digital image with a 105MP scan, but it was fun and interesting to do.

See the comparison here.

The Photo-Travel Map

2006-09-10T09:27:00.000-05:00

I made this website using the Google Maps API:

It's a satellite image of the Earth, where I superimposed markers that show (most of) the place that I have visited. When you click on a marker, a baloon pops up, with the description of the site and, in some cases, a small picture.

The map is a regular Google map, so you can navigate, zoom in and out, and explore.

At this time there are almost 200 markers, so it will take a few seconds to load (if you have high-speed internet - otherwise longer); please be patient. I will add more markers and pictures as I travel to new places.

If you want to make your own photo-travel-map, look at this tutorial.

Wright Brothers National Memorial

2006-09-08T23:40:00.000-05:00

During the Outer Banks trip, we also visited the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk.
This is where Wilbur and Orville Wright attempted to fly for about 3 years, until they finally succeded in December of 1903.

There isn't much to see there: some markers that show where the plane started, took off, and landed again; a re-enactment (with mannequins) of the moment of flight (see picture above); and a nice futuristic monument to flight (see picture below - I tried to add a futuristic painting touch to it because the regular picture looked too much like a postcard).

There is also a small museum in the visitor center; it's pretty interesting, with a lot of information on flight and the work of the Wright brothers. Their story is fascinating, so don't miss out on it.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore (NC Outer Banks)

2006-09-08T23:39:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to catch with this year's trips, after I stopped posting back in February.
First in line is the trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, in March of this year. The Outer Banks are a string of very narrow islands out in the Atlantic Ocean, several miles away from the North carolina coast.

It was still rather cold, so there were very few people around. Good.

The highlight of Cape Hatteras National Seashore is obviously the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. Unfortunately, a few years ago it was moved inland because the coast's erosion was threatening it, so it has become a much less interesting photographic subject. A lighthouse in the middle of a field surrounded by woods is not exactly spectacular. You do hear the ocean in the distance, though.

Fortunately the local fauna can help give a little more interest to the pictures:

Not far north of Cape Hatteras, there is another interesting lighthouse, on Bodie Island. There are actually several lighthouses in the area: North Carolina was one of the first states to be colonized, and in the 17th and 18th centuries many routes went by this part of the coast. Most of the lighthouses on these isalnds are well worth a visit.

You may have heard about the "lost colony", the first English colony in America, which was settled in 1587 by 120 people who then vanished without a trace within 3 years. To this day nobody knows exactly what happened to them. The lost colony was situated on Roanoke Island, just a couple of miles north of Bodie Island Lighthouse.

The area is also an important stop in the migratory path of many birds, so with a little patience you can spot some interesting birds. The best place to find migratory birds are two lakes in Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, which is technically not part of Cape Hatteras NS, even though it lies in the middle of it.

I had just bought the ZD 40-150 and I was hoping to come home with some spectacular bird pictures, but it's actually a lot harder than it seems.

A couple of hard-learned lessons:

Set the exposure manually, or at least use manual compensation to significantly increase the exposure: unless the bird is pretty much filling the frame, the camera is going to expose for a nice full blue sky. Unfortunately, this means that the bird is going to look like a black spot with no detail whatsoever.
Use continuous autofocus, follow the bird in the viewfinder (harder than it seems) and keep shooting.
Take lots and lots of pictures, in the hope that one of them will turn out ok. This is not a situation where you can visualize a picture, take it, and know that you have it. Don't try to finess it. Go for brute force.
Use a relatively high ISO speed to keep the shutter very fast. Enough shots will end up out of focus anyway, you don't want the others to be motion-blurred.
Use the longest and brightest lens you can afford. The birds are not going to come there for you.

Unfortunately I learnt these lessons after I came back and looked at the pictures. This is pretty much the best I have (the first is a White Ibis, the second a Blue Heron):

The Bender 4x5 View Camera Project is finished!

2006-09-04T21:52:00.000-05:00

After a few months of inactivity, I'm back.

I completed the construction of the Bender 4x5 view camera (see picture on the right); you can find a full report about it here, some additional pictures here, and a comparison between 4x5 film and a dSLR here.

In the next few days I'll start updating this blog - there are lots of trips and photographs to talk about!

Blue Ridge Parkway in winter

2006-02-20T22:38:00.000-05:00

Last week we went back to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

A couple of inches of snow were enough to transform the dull scenery of a few months ago in something a lot more interesting.

I'm glad we gave the place another shot.

Old Salem

2005-12-31T16:27:00.000-05:00

The week before Christmas we went for a walk around Old Salem. Old Salem is a neighborhood in Winston-Salem, NC, that has been kept more or less similar to what it was when the city was founded, in the 18th century, by Moravians moving from Pennsylvania.

There are regular people now living in the old houses, and the area features a college campus as well. The locals live like everybody else (it was pretty hard to keep cars out of the pictures) but they clearly take pride in the heritage of their neighborhood, they keep the area looking "original" and they set up lots of overpriced but nice gift shops for the tourists. There are a few museums as well, but you need a ticket for those. When we have more time we'll go back and take a look at those too.

There are still several Moravian Churches in the area to this day, and few know that the nationally reknown bank Wachovia took its name from this region (the Moravians thought that the area looked similar to their native Wach, and named it Wachovia).
We were hoping to see a lot of nice Christmas decorations (they had even been advertising on the radio), but we found it to be rather subdued. Still pretty nice though.

Thanksgiving in Chicago

2005-12-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

I hadn't been in Chicago for a few years and I returned there over Thanksgiving. There wasn't a lot of time for picture taking, but I did manage to shoot something.
The day after Thanksgiving we went in town for a late lunch at a nice local pub (Southport Lanes and Billiards, which, interestingly, is housed in an old bordello); after we came out, it was starting to snow and the streets were getting nicely covered in snow. We drove around a bit and ended up at the Planetarium. This is my favorite spot for taking pictures of the Chicago skyline.

Tip: when you take pictures while it's snowing and you want the snowflakes
to be visible in the picture, use the flash: the light from it will bounce on
the flakes and add a certain feeling to the picture.

The following day we went to Grant Park (click here to see it from a satellite). It offers some new attractions and interesting photo opportunities, located in the new Millennium Park (also here). By the way, a sign at the entrance says that Millennium Park is Mayor Daley's gift to the populace of Chicago... hmm... did he really pay for it, or was it the populace that actually footed the bill for the "gift"? Anyone in the know, let me know.

One of the photo opportunities is the Cloud Gate sculpture, which offers the possibility of shooting some pretty nice reflections. This must be on its way to becoming the most photographed thing on the planet. Everybody is there taking pictures. I suspect you could achieve the same effect in Photoshop, but the real thing does have its attractiveness. It almost looks like an alien spaceship.

The other cool new thing is the Crown Fountain. This is basically two units of what is probably the biggest TV set in the world. They both constantly show the faces of different people and intermittently spit water out of the mouth of the people being shown. They appear to be just regular people, not models or celebrities. The effect is pretty hypnotic, but at first also somewhat creepy.

No spitting water in winter, but pretty cool nevertheless. Lots of people taking pictures here too.

Read here all about the symbolism of the fountain.

Here is a close-up of the big TV's mega-pixels (pun intended - if you didn't get it maybe it's better). They are pretty big. Find out here what digital photography gear heads have to say about (low, in this case) pixel density...

Even if you're not a techno-geek, though, it is interesting to see up close how pixels of just 3 colors are able to create a natural-color image.

Last stop in our Chicago Thanksgiving tour was Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. I guess most people see it in summer, but from a photographer's perspective it's much more interesting in winter.

History of the American Soldier at Guilford Courthouse NMP

2005-11-12T16:34:00.000-05:00

Today, the day after Memorial Day, the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park hosted the event "History of the American Soldier".
The park is the site of a major battle of the Revolutionary War, and it is a fitting place for displays and story telling about the life of American soldiers.

From the National Park Service website:

The "History of the American Soldier" is a unique interpretive program conducted as a tribute to all veterans, past and present. This living timeline of history represents eight major periods of United States military history, from the French and Indian War of 1755 to the present day. Park visitors are invited to tour its displays of equipment and weaponry ranging from the flintlock musket to the M16. Park volunteers, properly uniformed to reflect the flashy redcoat of the 18th century, the blue (and gray) of the 19th, and the subdued camouflage of the modern eras will be available to answer questions and describe their displays.

At the same time, there was also the recreation of a 1781 military encampment:

The militia was the citizen-soldier of the Revolution. The Guilford Militia, a
re-created Revolutionary War militia company, will present demonstrations of
period camp life, cooking, military demonstrations and drill, and talks
throughout the day for park visitors to their weekend encampment.

The chicken looked pretty yummy, better than the McDonald's that we ended up eating at.

Fall colors around Greensboro

2005-11-06T22:27:00.000-05:00

Last weekend in the mountains we didn't find very impressive colors - the leaves seem to have gone from pale green directly to the ground - but this weekend around Greensboro was much better.
This is a lake (nicely named "Fishing Pond #2") in Greensboro's Bur-Mil County Park. The picture is a panoramic stitch of three frames.

The park has a lot of nice hiking and biking trails that eventually lead to the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, another very nice park that is in a way the "Central Park" of Greensboro.

This cemetery (Forest Lawn C.) is right next to Guilford NMP. Sometimes I feel strange about taking pictures in cemeteries, it seems like it's a little bit disrespectful, but there were quite a few people doing it this time, so at least I was able to blend in.

To the north of Greensboro, close to the border with Virginia, are some nice rural areas, with their share of cute abandoned houses like this one. We actually did find a couple of nicer ones, but we were abruptly chased off the property by an angry local. I do not post those pictures for fear of retribution. They have shotguns and I think they took my license plate number.

The Bender View Camera Project

2005-11-02T23:37:00.000-05:00

I received today my Bender 4x5 view camera. I will build it over the next few weeks.
Look in my new blog for updates and info.

Good and Bad Landscape Photography

2005-11-01T22:29:00.000-05:00

Scenery, character and light

A few times already I have left for a landscape photo-taking trip full of hope and expectations, I have taken a few of what should have been nice pictures, only to be disappointed back at home looking at the result of the effort. It happened again last Sunday after an otherwise nice and pleasant trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and I am starting to ask myself, why?

It's obvious that great pictures, by nature and definition, happen only a few rare times. Most of the time we get average pictures. We all know this. Still, we all have felt the disappointment of a failed photo trip, and knowing that we couldn't really have expected anything different is not consolation enough.

None of this is going to change, but I have been trying to at least understand what makes a good landscape photograph, why sometimes it happens and sometimes not, and what, if anything, can be done to make it happen.
The conclusion is somewhat reassuring because it suggests both that for the most part the disappointing results are not my fault but that I can do something about them.

I believe that there are five basic elements to a good lanscape picture. Three of them, the most important, are not in control of the photographer, even though they are in control of the traveler. The other two are partially in control of the photographer, but they are far less important.

The first and most important element is the scenery itself. It may sound obvious, but the fact is that most places just don't cut it anymore. We are too used to seeing the most beautiful places on earth every day on TV, in books and magazine, on the web. The beauty of most places has simply been diluted and devalued. So when the scenery itself is lacking, the chances of getting good landscape photography are significantly reduced. The photographer can't do anything about this, but the traveler can find the right place.

The second element is the character of the scenery. The same place can be boring in the middle of summer but it can become interesting after a light snowfall in winter, or because of the colors of the flowers or foliage in spring or fall. Fog can also add interest to an otherwise plain scenery, as can a storm or the presence of animals. Many things can salvage a poor scenery, but the good ones don't happen often. The photografer has no control over this, but the traveler can sometimes prepare and be in the place at the right time.

The third important element is the light. This is very similar to the previous point; the same place can be boring at noon but become interesting and even dramatic at dawn or dusk. Light passing through a break in thick clouds or shining on a limited part of the subject can give life to an otherwise dull scene. Again, most of the time light won't cooperate. Only the patience and intuition of the traveler will allow the photographer to catch the right light.

The other two elements I mentioned for good landscape photography are squarely in the photographer's domain: composition and exposure.
Considering the preponderance of the scenery in landscape photography, composition does not offer much latitude: it's not hard to figure out a good composition for a natural beauty, and it's hard to do it wrong. Little to be said here.
As fas as the exposure is concerned, it's probably the only photographer's skill that matters, and it does so only when the light is challenging. Otherwise, there isn't much to say here either.

When all of the above elements are right (the scenery, its character and the light) we have great landscapes. Some examples of this can be found in Ansel Adam's work, and in many others.

When only the scenery is right, but its character and the light are plain, we have the typical postcard. Nice to look at, but hardly inspiring.

If the state of the scenery and/or the light are right, we can have good, even great photographs, but rarely will they be good or great landscape photographs.

The conclusion of all this is that good landscape photographs are taken by good travelers; that is, by photographers that go to the right place, at the right time, and are able to catch the right light through luck or patience. There is very little that they can do, technically, to make a plain landscape look good or a great landscape look bad.
The lesson is that we have to be good and smart travelers before we can be good landscape photographers. That's what I'm going to work on in the future.

Blue Ridge Parkway

2005-10-31T23:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we drove a few miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. It was supposed to be the peak weekend for the foliage color, but it wasn't as impressive as I had anticipated.

More importantly, the pictures that I came home with are a bit of a disappointment too.

It's not the first time that this has happened to me after a promising trip, and it has prompted me to think and try to understand what makes a good or a great landscape photograph.

I don't know if I have the answer, but at least I have a good theory and I have a better plan for the next time, which makes me feel better.

More about this later...

Welcome

2005-10-31T11:57:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my new photography blog.

I will use this space to discuss photography, travel, and of course the combination of the two, to show off some of my work, to hear what you think of my photography and to learn from your comments and your ideas.

You will also find a catalogue of resources of interest to photographers. I will add to this often, as I uncover new useful information.

Please come back often and don't hesitate to leave your comments.